Curved blinds for automobiles



' S. P. WINN Dec. 18, 1962 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed April 5. 1961 Dec. 18, 1962 s. P. WlNN CURVED BLINDS FOR AUTOMOBILES Filed A ril 5. 1961 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Dec. 18, 1962 s. P. WINN 3,069,198

CURVED BLINDS FOR AUTOMOBILES Filed April 5, 1961 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 United States Patent Ofifiee 3,069,198 Patented Dec. 18, 19,62

3,069,198 CURVED BLINDS FOR AUTOMOBILES Stanley Pearson Winn, 21 Lochuess Road, Torrens Park,

' South Australia, Australia Filed Apr. 5, 1961, Ser. No. 101,320 Claims priority, application Australia Apr. 11, 1960 9 Claims. (Cl. 29697) This invention relates to improvements in curved blinds which are suitable to extend across the windscreens of automobiles.

In by previous patent application Serial No. 6,539 filed Feb. 3, 1960 I disclosed a means whereby a blind could be curved around the windscreen of an automobile to give protection against the sun. According to my previous patent application Serial No. 6,539, the blind was of the roller type and was wound around a plurality of interconnected rollers rotatable on a curved shaft. The main reason Why interconnected rollers were described and claimed was the need to prevent lost motion whereby a blind operated from one end will tend to hang unevenly towards the other end. It has been found that this effect occurs when resilient materials such as coiled springs or braided rubber hose are used over the full width of a windscreen.

There are however a number of advantages in using a blind which is operable in two halves, one on the drivers side and the other on the passengers side of the vehicle.

In the first case the driver and the passenger are fre-.

quently of Widely different heights so that the shading desired by the driver is different from that desired by the passenger. Furthermore, the reduced length of roller makes it possible to use a coiled spring or braided rubber hose or other similar device around which a curved blind can be rolled.

It is the object of this invention to provide a means whereby a pair of blinds may be operated separately.

. In its simplest form this invention comprises a guide bracket attachable to the header panel of an automobile, a curved bar shaped to extend across the windscreen of an automobile, means retaining the guide bracket to the centre of the curved bar, blind retaining rollers rotatable on the curved bar, a pair of blinds on the blind retaining rollers, guide means on one end of the lower edge of each blind engageable in the guide bracket, and roller rotating means operable to rotate the blind retaining rollers and thereby raise or lower each of the blinds independently.

An embodiment of the invention is described hereunder in some detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a sectioned perspective view of the interior of a motor vehicle, showing the blind partly lowered on each side, I

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary section on lines 2-2 of FIG. 1,

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary section on lines 33 of FIG. 2,

FIG. 4 is a longitudinal section through the roller rotating means, and

FIG. 5 is a composite section taken on lines 5-5 of FIG. 4. Y

A curved bar is disposed behind a windscreen 11, the curved bar 10 being broken at a central point and its adjacent ends being inserted in sockets 12 in a guide bracket 13, the guide bracket 13 being secured by the screw 14 to a fixing bracket 15, the fixing bracket 15 being secured to the header panel 16 of a vehicle above the windscreen 11.

The guide bracket 13 is normally disposed vertically or' sloping slightly forwardly, depending upon the shape of the upper edge ofthe windscreenll.

The guide bracket 13 is formed with a pair of semicircular channels 19, each of which has disposed within it a pin 20, each pin 20 being slidably engaged by a looped portion 21 of a plastic end member which is inserted in the end of a tubular stifiener 22 which is dis-. posed along the lower edge of a blind 23. A pair of rear- Wardly facing lugs 24 retain a rear vision mirror 25 to the guide bracket 13. The sockets 12 in the guide bracket 13 are themselves set in recesses 27, so that contiguous articulated rollers 28 terminate within the recesses 27, as do the adjacent edges of the blinds 23.

The roller rotating means 31 comprise a hand wheel 32 of somewhat annular cross-section, the internal stern 33 of the hand wheel 32 being journalled within a bracket 34, which bracket 34 comprises a metal housing 35 contiguous with a fixing bracket 36 which is attachable to the roof side rail of an automobile, and with a sun visor attaching bracket 37.

The hand wheel 32 is retained Within the bracket 34 by means of a circular clip 38, and adjacent to the circular clip 38 is a spring washer 39 which is effective in pro.- viding a friction between the hand wheel 32 and the bracket 34.

The outer end of the curved bar 10 is disposed within the bracket 34, and the curved bar 10 rotatably supports a number of interlocking rollers 28 as described above, the last interlocking roller 28 however being formed with spur teeth 41, and these spur teeth 41 mesh with complementary teeth 42 on the internal stem 33 of the hand wheel 32, so that rotation of the hand wheel 32 produces rotation of the rollers 28. The last roller 28 which is formed with the spur teeth 41 is retained on the shaft by means of two split circular clips 43 which are engaged on the curved bar 10.

Limitation of rotation of the rollers 28 is achieved by limitation of rotation of the hand wheel 32, and this is in turn achieved by an inwardly disposed tooth 45 on the hand wheel 32 which engages a rocker member 46, the rocker member 46 being shaped as shown in FIG. 5 whereby the hand wheel 32 is able to rotate almost two complete turns but no more.

, The illustration of FIG. 5 shows how the inwardly disposed tooth 45 can continue to rotate in an anti-clock;

wise direction after one revolution until the tooth 45 strikes the outer edge of the rocker member 46, and further rotation is prevented by the rocker member. If however the rotation is reversed, the tooth 45 will engage the notch 47 in the rocker member 46 to rock it back to a position where continued rotation in -a clockwise direction will eventually bring the inwardly disposed tooth 45 in contact with the other outer edge of the rocker member 46.

In order to prevent the rocker member 46 from beingdislodged during operation, the rocker member is disposed on the end of a pin 49 which is loaded outwardly by the spring 50, thereby assuring suflicient frictional engagement between the rocker member .46 and the bracket 34 to prevent accidental movement of the rocker member 46.

The blinds 23 are formed from suitable material, such as woven nylon, and are stapled or otherwise secured to the rollers 28, the lower edges of the blinds 23 being hemmed where they engage the tubular stiffener 22. As said, the adjacent ends of the stiffener 22 terminate in the loop portions 21, the loop portions 21 forming part of plastic members to which the blind may be readily cemented or stapled, and the outer ends of the tubular stiffener 22 are also fitted with plastic members, the plastic members 52 in this case however simply comprising cylindrically shaped members each with a spigot on its inner end to engage the end of the tubular stiffener 22, and again the blind may be cemented or stapled to 3 the plastic members 52 thereby ensuring that the blind 23 is in each case retained both firm and steady.

The interlocking rollers 28 are arranged each with a dove-tailed slot 54 at one end, and a complementary tongue 55 at the other end, the tongue of each roller being disposed at right angles to its slot. This enables the rollers to negotiate a bend without the tongue end fouling the slot, but the mouth of the slot in each case can be an interference fit over an adjacent tongue so that there is no lost motion. If desired the rollers may comprise a single braided rubber tube for each blind, this being possible because of the comparatively short length of the curved blind.

The sun visor attaching brackets 37 rotatably retain sunvisors 57 which extend along the side windows of the vehicle and may be readily folded down to protect against glare entering the side windows.

A consideration of the above embodiment will indicate that the blinds 23 are each stabilised .against movement by a looped portion 21 engaging a pin 20 at one end only, and that this, combined with the curvature of each blind 23, will retain the blind 23 in a stable condition notwithstanding strong air currents or travel over rough roads. This is important since it removes the need for second guide means at the door opening localities.

Whatl claim is:

1. An improved curved blind for the windscreen of an automobile, comprising a guide bracket attachable to the header panel of an automobile, guides on the guide bracket extending downwardly, a curved bar shaped to extend across the windscreen of an automobile, means retaining the guide bracket to the centre of the curved bar, blind retaining rollers rotatable on the curved bar, a pair of blinds on the blind retaining rollers, guide means on one end only of the lower edge of each blind, the guide means slidably engaging the guides on the guide bracket, .and roller rotating means operable to rotate the blind retaining rollers and thereby raise or lower each of the blinds independently.

2. An improved curved blind for the windscreen of an automobile, comprising a guide bracket attachable to the header panel of an automobile, guides on the guide bracket extending downwardly, a curved bar shaped to extend across the windscreen of an automobile, means retaining the guide bracket to the centre of the curved bar, blind retaining rollers rotatable on the curved bar, a pair of blinds on the blind retaining rollers, guide means on one end only of the lower edge of each blind, the guide means slidably engaging the guides on the guide bracket, and roller rotating means on the ends of the curved bar operable to rotate the blind retaining rollers and thereby raise or lower the blinds independently.

3. An improved curved blind for the windscreen of an automobile, comprising a central guide bracket attachable to the header panel of an automobile, a pair of pins on the guide bracket extending downwardly, a curved bar shaped to extend across the windscreen of an automobile, the curved bar being broken and its adjacent ends being retained in the central guide bracket, blind retaining rollers rotatable on the curved bar, a pair of blinds on the blind retaining rollers, guide means on one end only of the lower edge of each blind, the guide means slidably engaging said pins on the guide bracket, and roller rotating means on the ends of the curved bar operable to rotate the blind retaining rollers and thereby raise or lower the blinds independently.

4. An improved curved blind for the windscreen of an automobile, comprising a guide bracket attachable to the header panel of an automobile, channels comprising guides in the guide bracket, a curved bar shaped to extend across the windscreen of an automobile, means retaining the guide bracket to the centre of the curved bar, blind retaining rollers rotatable on the curved bar, a pair of blinds on the blind retaining rollers, a pair of stitfeners extending one along the lower edge of each blind, guide means on one end only of each stifi'ener, the guide means slidably engaging said guides in said channels in the guide bracket, and roller rotating means linked to the rollers and operable to rotate the blind retaining rollers and thereby raise or lower the blinds independently.

5. An improved curved blind for the windscreen of an automobile, comprising a central guide bracket attachable to the header panel of an automobile, channels comprising guides in the guide bracket, a curved bar shaped to extend across the windscreen of an automobile, the curved bar being broken and its adjacent ends being retained in the central guide bracket, blind retaining rollers rotatable on the curved bar, a pair of blinds on the blind retaining rollers, a pair of stifieners extending one along the lower edge of each blind, guide means on one end only of each stiflener, the guide means slidably engaging said guides in the guide bracket, and roller rotating means linked to the rollers and operable to rotate the blind retaining rollers and thereby raise or lower the blinds independently.

6. An improved curved blind for the windscreen of an automobile, comprising a guide bracket adapted to be secured to the header panel of an automobile, a curved bar extending across the automobile behind and beneath the header panel, the curved bar being broken at a central point and its adjacent ends being disposed within sockets in the guide bracket, rollers on the curved bar, a pair of blinds on the rollers disposed one blind each side of the bracket, channels extending down the bracket, pins in the channels, a stifiener in the lower edge of each blind, a guide loop on one end only of each stiffener, each guide loop slidably engaging one of said pins, and roller rotating means on each of the remote ends of the curved bar operable to rotate the blind retaining rollers and thereby raise or lower the blinds independently.

-7. An improved curved blind for the windscreen of an automobile, comprising a guide bracket adapted to be secured to the header panel of an automobile, a pair of guide pins extending down one on each side of the guide bracket, a curved bar extending across the automobile behind and beneath the header panel, the curved bar being secured at a central point to the guide bracket, interconnected rollers on the curved bar, a pair of blinds on the rollers disposed one blind each side of the bracket, a stiffener in the lower edge of each blind, a guide loop on one end only of each stiffener, each guide loop slidably engaging one of said pins, and roller rotating means on each of the remote ends of the curved bar, each roller rotating means comprising a hand wheel operable to rotate the blind retaining rollers and thereby raise or lower the blinds independently.

8. An improved curved blind for the windscreen of an automobile, comprising a guide bracket adapted to be secured to the header panel of an automobile, guides on the guide bracket extending downwardly, a curved bar extending across the automobile behind and beneath the header panel, the curved bar being secured at a central point to the guide bracket, interconnected rollers on the curved bar, a pair of blinds on the rollers disposed one blind each side of the bracket, a stiffener in the lower edge of each blind, guide means on one end only of each stiffener, the guide means slidably engaging said guides, roller rotating means on each of the remote ends of the curved bar, each roller rotating means comprising a hand wheel, spur teeth on the hand wheel engaging spur teeth on a roller, and a bracket adapted to be secured to a roof side rail of the automobile, said handwheel being journalled to said bracket and an end of the curved bar being retained in said bracket.

9. An improved curved blind for the windscreen of an automobile, comprising a guide bracket secured to the header panel of an automobile, a curved bar extending across the automobile behind and beneath the header panel, the curved bar being broken at a central point and its adjacent ends being disposed within sockets in the guide bracket, interconnected rollers on the curved bar, a pair of blinds on the rollers disposed one blind each side of the bracket, channels extending down the bracket, pins in the channels, a stiffener in the lower edge of each blind engaging a said pin, each said blind being secured at its lower corners to a said stiffener, roller rotating means on each of the remote ends of the curved bar, each roller rotating means comprising a hand wheel, spur teeth on the hand wheel engaging spur teeth on a roller, a bracket adapted to be secured to a roof side rail of the automobile, said hand Wheel being journalled to said bracket and an end of the curved bar being retained in said bracket, and a tooth on the hand wheel co-operating with a complementary notched rocker 1 member on the bracket whereby rotation of the hand Wheel is limited to less than two revolutions.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 474,902 Cochran May 17, 1892 516,018 Lauer Mar. 6, 1894 2,585,769 Hamlin Feb. 12, 1952 2,780,941 Kollrnorgen Feb. 12, 1957 2,862,762 McCormick Dec. 2, 1958 FOREIGN PATENTS 641,129 France Apr. 10, 1928 378,336 Great Britain Aug. 11, 1932 149,599 Switzerland Dec. 1, 1931 

